Couple of quick scouting questions...

1. Am I the only person seeing scouts have their ratings fluctuate during the season? For instance, at one point my scout (Marcelo Ramos, 44 y.o.) reached an 18/20 rating for JCA/JPA. Less than a year later he's now 18/18. Another scout (David Lacoste, 37 y.o.) reached a 20/20 rating for me at the beginning of the season, but has now fallen to 19/19. What gives? They both started out in the 15 range for both abilities and I've never seen attributes both rise and fall over the course of a single season.

2. Why can't I ever find players from big clubs, including their youth squads? My Vancouver team has now surpassed the 6,000 mark for club rep (3 stars) and I've signed a handful of players that are being chased by big clubs. However, any time I send my scouts out to England, Spain, Germany, etc. they almost always come back with 3-3 1/2 star players from the smaller clubs in the top division. I understand that some players won't consider signing for me...but I'd at least like to know who to monitor over the long run. For example, after ManU became my parent club I decided to scout their youth squad, where I found a 4 star striker with no interest in signing for me. Fast forward a few months and ManU releases him. I swoop in and sign him for the minimum salary I can offer and within a year he's playing for the U-19 England squad. Had I not scouted him myself I never would have found him. Same thing applies to nations like Brazil...after an initial handful of scouting reports revealed 4 and 5 star players, I've now built up my squad to where the only players I find are 3 stars or less, but it's not as though I have a hugely talented squad. Instead, I'm left with scouting the U-20 squad and have so far managed to sign 4 players off of there that never showed up in any of the scouting reports (I have two or three scouts rotating throughout Brazil, so someone is always scouting there.) Is this due to club rep? League rep? Something else?